In the future, entertainment is all-important. Most people are mere proles, living on a mere $2 million or so; but if you're either an extremely gifted specialist (such as scientist or teacher), or a celebrity, you can make billions. One way to become a celebrity is to commit a sensational crime--if it entertains enough people, then the criminal owns the intellectual property rights to that crime and can't be convicted. Our characters, high school misfits who will have to face the real world on graduation, set out to stow away on a trip to Mars. Unfortunately, one member of the group has a few more lethal crimes in mind...
This book isn't a mystery, because you know who the criminal is going to be before you even know what the crime is going to be. It's a book with a Message, but the author doesn't hit you with it until the end of the book, and in any event, it's not a message that most people can do anything about. The characters seemed inconsistent: the heroine is obsessed with maintaining her celebrity rating, until she isn't; the criminal plans everything out carefully, except for leaving one huge glaring loose end. And the book is about a ballistic trip to Mars, which means it takes a while. And a while longer. And we're sitting here watching the plants grow. And some more time.
If you are a Barnes fan, check it out from the library; if you aren't, you should certainly not start with this.
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